Course Management: What do you see?

• Posted on Grant
• in Course Management, Golf Fundamentals
• on December 6, 2013
• Comments Off on Course Management: What do you see?

My definition of course management: Determining how to proceed based on what you see in front of you on the golf course. What do you see in the picture below?

Here’s what I see:

I like to look at the trees closest to me and picture them as if they were outlined in a steel wall. If you had a steel wall in front of you that looked like the one above, would you try to hit your ball through that little hole? Or, would you choose to chip out to the right to get back in the fairway?

I have seen many golfers try to thread it through a little opening in the trees because they think their ball will make it through the tree somehow, even if they miss the opening. Sometimes their golf ball does make it through, but the times it doesn’t really hurts their score. For the weekend golfer, eliminating 7’s and 8’s off the scorecard would help their score immensely.

The same line of thinking can be used to determine the starting line of your tee shots. The tee shot below looks pretty harmless doesn’t it?

I see many golfers tee off this hole because the tee box is right next to a practice green I frequently use. I know from first-hand experience that this tee shot is not harmless. About half of the golfers that come through this hole clip the tree on the right, and about half of those golfers end up with a ball out of bounds in the houses on the right. I think they could avoid this trouble if they would see what I see in the picture below.

I see a high tee shot that starts at the left side of the fairway and then works back to the right.

Even if the average player can’t fade or draw the ball on command, they will be much better off missing the tree closest to them, even if their ball ends up in the left rough. Always remember when planning your shots: The trouble closest to you can hurt you the most.

Thanks for reading and let me know if this helped your course management skills!

GB